John Idzik will sit outside with his family at tonight’s Super Bowl, watching the Seattle Seahawks, a team he helped build with an approach he believes can turn the Jets into a winner.

As Idzik roots for Seattle to beat Denver, he’ll likely feel a strong motivation to get the Jets to their second Super Bowl — and first since they won it in 1969.

The Seahawks coming to MetLife Stadium for this game "does motivate you, because you know what went into it and you see where it’s headed," Idzik said.

Idzik just completed his first season as the Jets’ general manager. They went 8-8, and Idzik decided to bring coach Rex Ryan back for his sixth season. Idzik spent 2007-12 as Seattle’s vice president of football administration, overseeing player negotiations, salary cap compliance and contracts.

Idzik was brought to Seattle by general manager Tim Ruskell. In 2010, the Seahawks replaced Ruskell with 38-year-old John Schneider, who hired Pete Carroll as head coach and retained Idzik, whom Schneider had known since the early 1990s.

Over the next four years, Schneider turned the Seahawks into a Super Bowl team by building through the draft, most notably with lower-round finds; by crafting a fast, aggressive defense; and by not shying away from using young players.

Idzik said he sees parallels between the current Seahawks and what the Jets are trying to build, particularly with defensive speed and relying on youth.

"I think that’s what Seattle has done under Pete and John, and I think you saw a little bit of that here, too. I think that serves the young guys well, and in turn serves your team well, too, in the long run."

YOUNG TALENT

The Jets in 2013 leaned on rookies such as QB Geno Smith, cornerback Dee Milliner and defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson, as well as second-year players like linebackers Demario Davis and Quinton Coples.

"John Schneider has done a great job of finding diamonds in the rough in later rounds," said Seahawks tight end Zach Miller, a second-round pick by the Raiders in 2007.

Idzik said discovering talented players in later rounds does not involve looking for something different than other teams, so much as "clearly defining what you’re looking for, clearly defining to your scouts what that means, so that they can kind of translate that when they’re watching someone.

"It’s really being disciplined in first defining that, and the ability to recognize it when it’s not readily apparent to everybody else."

Like many of his later-round picks, Schneider had to prove himself to get here. Because of injuries, he played football only as a freshman at Division 3 University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. But two years before he graduated in 1994, he pestered Packers general manager Ron Wolf into letting him be a summer intern.

Schneider was a pro personnel assistant in Green Bay from 1993-96, and one of his earliest duties offered a brush with NFL greatness. In 1993, the Packers traded for future Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson. He would never play for the team because he failed a physical, and then retired.

One of Dickerson’s last acts as a professional football player: Schneider picking him up at the airport and driving him to the team’s complex.

"He was kind of an idol of mine growing up, so that was pretty cool," Schneider said. "I picked him up in my Taurus stick-shift station wagon."

During Schneider’s early years in Green Bay’s scouting department, he crossed paths on the road with Idzik, also a pro personnel assistant from 1993-96, with Tampa Bay, after transitioning from college coaching.

HEALTHY DEBATE

Having known Idzik for so long, Schneider said it was a "very easy" decision to retain him when Schneider took over. For the next three years, Idzik was a valuable asset, though not as a "yes" man.

"I think he was very good at just always playing devil’s advocate," Schneider said. "If we were starting to go down a different path, he would say, ‘What about this? Have you thought about the ramifications?’ Somebody to be able to just bounce things off of, philosophically."

That is the type of "healthy debate" Idzik said he thinks he is building with the Jets, so that "there’s enough security and confidence in the room where if you see something a little bit different way, then there’s a forum where you can make that known."

Idzik stopped by the Seahawks’ hotel in Jersey City early last week to say hello to his former co-workers. Tonight, Idzik will watch intently and pull for the Seahawks, because "obviously, I’ve got a special place in my heart for the guys in Seattle," he said.

Tomorrow morning, he will return to the Jets’ draft preparations, hoping their comparisons with Seattle eventually extend further than they already have.

"There are some similarities," Idzik said. "But there will always be unique twists to anything you do in different clubs."